Alaska

Alaska

I suppose when a state is as big as Alaska, it needs more than one place for its archives. Alaska has three archive collections, at the state government, the state library, and the state university. You need a hunting license to find them all.

Let's begin with the official Alaska State Archives. This is an Archives in the old fashioned sense, focusing on records management procedures for the state, and keeping most of its collection in file drawers. Its online collection is rather small, but does include one sizable document of note, the Probate Records of Alaska, 1885-1960...a names list of 17,000 probate cases from Alaska's early court system.

For family history researchers, the rest of the Archives collection can be a valuable resource, even though the bulk of their materials are offline. See their Alaska Genealogy page for a description of what's available, and procedures for requesting information.

Behind door #2, you can find Alaska's Digital Archives, from the University of Alaska, with a wealth of historical photographs, albums, oral histories, moving images, maps, documents, physical objects, tribal histories, and other materials from libraries, museums, tribes, villages and archives throughout the state.

Materials here are divided into two broad areas, Native Cultures, and Alaska Statehood: